Solo in Siskiyou

Rural California feels left out of the California Dream, ignored, kicked around and over-taxed in its estimation. The poster child for this cause is Siskiyou County, one of the state’s most remote and poorest entities on the Oregon border.

But it’s hardly alone. Other parts of the state — both big city and farm country — are feeling left out too. The difference, if there is one, is that these other places have been pushed away instead of demanding to go.

The straight up notion of secession is far-fetched. The tiny county, with a population the size of the Bay Area town of Brentwood, doesn’t like gun laws, environmental rules or water use dictates. It feels ignored and wants to leave the state in a move that’s more protest than serious plan.

It’s welcome to try and sound off about its complaints. But consider other parts of California that have been ignored and left out in other ways. A third of Compton in Los Angeles lives below the poverty line and its rate of deep poverty — measured as 50 percent of the federal level — is double the state average.

Take another example: tap water. Birth defects are now traced to groundwater tainted by years of chemical use in farmlands of the San Joaquin Valley. On an even bigger scale are the 7 million Californians — more than a fifth of the state’s population — who get by on various forms of disability, medical and income aid.

Siskiyou County’s threat to leave brings up a serious issue: What does secession really mean in a state that’s filled with pockets of great wealth and persistent poverty? Use any social marker, and it turns out there are scores, if not hundreds, of silent Siskiyous in the state, some marooned at a far distance from average California, some hidden, or at least neglected, in plain sight in urban areas.

With a jobless rate of 13 percent and average household income of $37,865, Siskiyou ranks as one of poorest of California’s 58 counties. Its remote location on the Oregon border and sparse population contribute to this isolation.

But Siskiyou isn’t the only place looking to pull away from the crowd, and it’s not just poor places that feel this way. Wealthy communities are opting out of conventional California as well, for very different reasons.

One Bay Area example is outlined by Ed Source, a website that closely follows public education policy here. Public school spending averages $8,382 per student per year, but three wealthy Bay Area communities are pouring extra money into their classrooms far above this level. Palo Alto ($13,400), Hillsborough ($13,507), and Ross ($17,020) spend far more than hundreds of other districts around the state. It’s a disparity that Gov. Jerry Brown intends to fix with extra funds for poor districts, but the Sacramento money won’t come close to leveling a sharply tilted playing field.

It may be an unwinnable battle to argue for a statewide level of services and governmental attention, given Sacramento’s limited pocket of money. Siskiyou County may not have much in common with other struggling parts of the state when it comes to guns, resource development and the role of government, but its isolation from the sense of confidence and possibility that defines the California Dream is hardly unique.